Tony Smith is a Sports Reporter from Stuff
OPINION: For a fleeting moment, it was possible to feel sorry for Ian Foster and Sam Cane.
Yes, that’s right – please don’t adjust your newspaper glasses or digital device.
A torrent of disdain – much of it deserved – has been flung at the All Blacks captain and coach since the flagrant defeat of the Test series in Ireland.
But you started to understand what Foster and Cane are dealing with when a couple of unmasked All Blacks strode through the lobby of the Wellington airport last Tuesday.
Are these careless young men so locked up in their rugby bubble that they know masks must be worn in airport terminals during Covid-19 and flu outbreaks? Or do they think that rules meant for the hoi polloi don’t apply to All Blacks?
No wonder other passengers were agape, when a clueless All Black troop trudged to their departure gate. Who were those unmasked men?” onlookers might have muttered, paraphrasing a famous phrase from the TV series Lone Ranger and Tonto.
A fellow traveler who challenged the maskless miscreants and said, “It looks bad, you’re an All Black,” was scornfully told to “chill.” Perhaps the idiot who said so could try that ill-considered throw-away line at the families of 2,000 or more New Zealanders who have died from Covid.
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The players have had their own encounters, with the coaches, who are adamant that they can turn this team around.
Kiwis are quick to excuse All Blacks, but the attitude of the uncovered players amounted to arrogance. They might have said, “We are the mighty All Blacks – once the best rugby team in the world – your rules don’t apply to us.”
Four unmasked players were photographed, but the fellow traveler told Stuff that most of the All Blacks group of 10 to 20 players and staff were not wearing face coverings. An All Blacks spokesman later said the players were wearing masks shortly after they were photographed. Masks were also worn during their flight to Auckland.
The mask crime makes you wonder if the All Blacks’ vaunted ‘no jerks’ policy has been put in place.
In addition, does failure to follow a common sense guideline amid a Covid pandemic have a parallel with the All Blacks’ recent inability to craft and execute a coherent game plan on the field?
Not all New Zealanders over the age of 12 should know by now that masks must be worn in public institutions.
Why isn’t slipping a mask as mundane for an All Black as putting on a mouthguard?
Or should veteran All Blacks manager Darren Shand now stand outside the airport door, like a new teacher on a school transition: “Hold hands lads… cap, shirt, Bata Bullets… face mask”?
Heck, the All Blacks even have their own trademark mask brand, so a marketing opportunity to highlight their patented silver fern was missed.
The airport hubris came at a time when the All Blacks should launch a nationwide charm offensive to win back the hearts and minds of a disgruntled public.
Their stocks have never been lower after four heady defeats in their last five games. Now is the time to open the locker room doors after every game for media looking for sound bites. All Blacks should make an effort to sign every autograph book offered, attend sponsorship events and school visits, and smile at every passerby, not tell them to “relax”.
Phil Walter/Getty Images
All Blacks captain Sam Cane during the third test loss to Ireland in Wellington.
Still, some All Blacks – so paralyzed against Ireland – dropped the ball badly on one of their first interactions with the crowd.
Not that we should be surprised. It was just the latest of a string of beatings over the past few weeks.
Aside from the match results, trouble started with coach Ian Foster taking public relations advice to cancel his Sunday press conference after the third test loss in Wellington. Foster should have been willing to answer the perfectly legitimate question of whether he felt he was the best man to list the All Blacks ship.
But Foster has at least been on the front a few times since then — unlike his boss. New Zealand Rugby should launch a new board game – with ‘Where’s Robbo?” replacing ‘Where’s Wally? Punters could be encouraged to see if they could spot the Teflon-enabled NZR chief executive, who has so far been missing in the dispatches (an ambiguously worded press release, aside).
If Robbo had shown a nifty side step on the pitch, he might have won more than nine caps. He essentially left Foster alone to face the media music alone after scapegoating assistant coaches Brad Mooar and John Plumtree. It’s hard to imagine past CEOs Chris Moller and Steve Tew would have been so hands-off at a time of All Blacks crisis.
Don’t Robinson and the All Blacks realize that every move they make off the field will be used as a benchmark to gauge the team’s mentality about this.
The All Blacks have to watch every step. That’s why something as simple as wearing masks is important.
All Blacks shouldn’t be role models for anything other than how to pass, catch, run and kick correctly, but it’s one thing bending the laws to break another, quite another to disobey rules set by other Newcomers. Zealanders are followed.
Wearing a mask would be a way to show that All Blacks really believe they are still one of us.